


Day 1: To Christmas! (The Drinking Song)

by Hapkido9061



Series: 25 Cliché Days of Christmas [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, KaiSoo - Freeform, Light Angst, M/M, Minor chanbaek, Office Party, There's so little you might miss most of it, mentions of other exo members - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 08:00:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16806625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hapkido9061/pseuds/Hapkido9061
Summary: “I was just leaving.”“Please don’t! I don’t want to get fired over this!”“Excuses. Now excuse me, I have a Christmas party to plan. By myself.”Or...Where Kyungsoo dislikes Kim Jongin (scratch that,loatheshim. They're sworn enemies if you ask Kyungsoo) and they're partnered to plan the office Christmas party together. Baekhyun can only hope they bring enough alcohol for him to get drunk





	Day 1: To Christmas! (The Drinking Song)

**Author's Note:**

> The title is based on the song of the same name, and I tried to incorporate it into the story (sort of)! Hope you enjoy this and what will be the disaster of my Christmas count down oneshots :P

“She can’t be serious…” Kyungsoo mumbled under his breath as his eyes scanned the email. Its Times New Roman font and perfectly formatted paragraphs were taunting him. Baekhyun looked up from the other side of his desk. His brow furrowed in confusion as Kyungsoo switched the topic from spending analysis charts to whatever had him so upset.

He called in Baekhyun to help go over some mistakes that some of his employees had made, but really, Kyungsoo just felt like complaining to his friend. There weren’t many at the office Kyungsoo worked at besides him and Junmyeon. At their high level, most of their coworkers were self-entitled pricks who believed the world revolved around them.

Baekhyun raised an eyebrow when Kyungsoo didn’t elaborate any further. He waited until Kyungsoo turned the monitor of the desktop computer around, so he could read whatever it was that had Kyungsoo so worked up. A laugh broke out, even when he desperately tried to cover it with his hands before Kyungsoo could hear it.

“Shut it, Baek! It’s not funny!”

“It really is though, and it’s what? A month until Christmas?” Kyungsoo nodded sharply. “Well damn, it’s still warm out…”

“And this… Baek can you close the door?” Baekhyun did. Kyungsoo waited until no sounds coming from his private office could be heard in the hallway. “This bitch knows how much I hate him! She’s ruined Christmas!”

“That’s dramatic, don’t you think?”

“No. If you want to know who’s dramatic, it’s Kim Jongin.”

Baekhyun twirled around on the spinning chair with his hands behind his head. “Well, you’d better learn to play nice with him. You two are planning the world-famous department Christmas party after all. I expect there to be enough rum and cranberry vodka to not remember anything in the morning!”

The other didn’t offer up a response at the witty remark. Kyungsoo shouldn’t have to be the one to plan this, he’s the head of domestic finances for God’s sake! And there’s been more than once, he’s certain, that the boss of both him and Jongin has had to mediate conflicts. She even called in HR for one of their disputes over dress code policy when it got too disruptive to other employees.

Why she ever would want to partner them up for planning an event was beyond him.

Baekhyun left the office once the clock hit 2:00. He mentioned having a meeting to get to with the corporate office of the Japan branch. As his friend left without offering up his condolences for the soon to be death of Kyungsoo, the other simply leaned back in his chair. If he were a smoker, this would be the perfect time to take a drag and blow the smoke out towards the ceiling with as much emphasis on his sullen attitude as he could manage.

But alas, he wasn’t.

Instead, Kyungsoo flipped through the desk calendar sitting to the left of the computer’s monitor. A look back to the horrid email. A look back to the calendar. Kyungsoo ran a hand through his hair as he read through that godforsaken email again to make sure he didn’t misread the first three times.

_Mr. Do,_

_As I have talked with some of your coworkers and other employees, we believe it would be the most beneficial if you help to plan our company’s annual Christmas celebration. As you know, every year, two employees plan it together and take charge. The party is planned for December 23, reserved at the Town Hall for 7:30 PM until 11 PM. The rest is up to your discretion to plan._

_As kindly as I would like to put this, this is not an optional choice. The partner we have chosen for you to work with is Kim Jongin, head of the international affairs on the 17 th floor._

_Thank you,_

_Choi Sajeon_

_P.S._

_Do not make us call HR on you two again._

Kyungsoo counted the days on his calendar once again. Twenty-nine days until the party, including today. Twenty-eight days of a ruined holiday season and hell on earth.

. . .

Jongin was late.

They had a meeting to go over plans for the company party that was planned almost a week ago, Kyungsoo emailed him multiple times just to make sure he wouldn’t forget. The younger kept reassuring him he wouldn’t, but here they are. This was not the way Kyungsoo wanted to start. Just as he was about to leave (the twenty minutes spent waiting in the cramped meeting room did not help his sour mood), Jongin burst through the door.

“Hey, yeah... sorry, sorry,” Jongin stammered. His gloves and coat were haphazardly thrown on as if he had forgotten how to properly dress himself. As he tried to untangle himself from his scarf, Kyungsoo saw how red his cheeks and nose were. He bit his tongue at making a comment.

“I was just leaving,” Kyungsoo said with a tight-lipped smile.

“Please don’t! I don’t want to get fired over this!”

“Excuses. Now excuse me, I have a Christmas party to plan. By myself.”

“No, no, wait! I’ve still got time right now, you do too, right?” Kyungsoo sighed, one finger coming up to rub at the bridge of his nose but nodded in confirmation. “We’re good then! Sit down, please!”

As Kyungsoo sat back down at his seat and flipped his laptop back open, Jongin put down the tray of coffee he was carrying (Kyungsoo only noticed it when the red of the Starbuck’s cup caught his eye). He didn’t seem to notice that his beanie was still on, barely hiding his mussed-up hair.

Jongin took one cup out of the tray and passed it over to Kyungsoo. The other he left for himself as he threw the tray in the garbage can. Kyungsoo looked at the red cup suspiciously. After all, who knows what kind of poison was put into it as no one was watching? Seems like a very Kim Jongin thing to do…

“It’s a vanilla chai latte. That one intern… Sehun! He said you liked that one a lot,” Jongin offered up when Kyungsoo didn’t take a drink. The older paused before taking a sip. He wasn’t lying; the drink was his favorite type of warm winter drink. But that didn’t mean anything in the big scheme of things. Not one bit.

Jongin coughed to clear his throat. His own laptop was booting up in front of him at the table next to Kyungsoo. “So, any ideas? I’m not very creative with this sort of stuff. Like at all.”

Of course he wasn’t. Kyungsoo opened a new document on his computer to write down any ideas they would come up with. “Let’s start with something easy. It’s at the Town Hall reception room, right?” Jongin shrugged his shoulders. Kyungsoo took the liberty of being productive and checking the email. “Well, it is. We’re going to need food, but nothing too big. It’s going to be after dinner.”

“Cookies?” Jongin screwed his face up at the mention. Kyungsoo could agree with that suggestion, though. Cookies were fine, just… plain. “What about some kind of cheese tray? Or crackers?”

Jongin kicked back in his chair. One peek to his computer told Kyungsoo that he was browsing Amazon instead of trying to help plan anything. Kyungsoo shook his head. “Too fancy. Besides, it’s going to be late at night, remember? No one wants to eat all that so late.”

“What ideas do you have then?”

“Pastries?” Jongin’s eyes lit up at the idea. Kyungsoo took that as ‘yes’. “We’ll have Mo’s Bakes cater then… any suggestions for what we should order?”

“What do they have?”

Kyungsoo had to hold back a snort. “What do you mean? Everyone’s been there, it’s only the most famous in the whole town!”

Jongin shrugged his shoulders again and typed something into the computer. “I only moved here a couple of months ago, remember? They transferred me from the Gwangju branch.” No, Kyungsoo did not remember. It felt as though the younger had been tormenting his entire existence since day one. Jongin was quite a ways away from home and as far as Kyungsoo knew, Jongin was actually pretty shy. It was just something about him that riled Kyungsoo up.

Would he have anyone to spend Christmas Day with?

Shooing the thoughts away from his mind, Kyungsoo pulled up the bakery’s menu on his screen. “Here. The peppermint bark pretzels are my favorite, and the snowball puffs are a classic.”

Jongin nodded at what Kyungsoo mentioned and scrolled through the list. A small smile crossed his lips as he passed by the frosted gingersnaps. “My mom used to make those…” he mumbled, low enough that Kyungsoo wouldn’t have heard if he wasn’t paying attention.

Kyungsoo added them to the list of what to order.

And then promptly groaned as he saw that picking out what food to order and even getting so far as to start choosing items took almost half an hour. Jongin took his sweet time with everything. Kyungsoo wanted to pop open a bottle of whatever liquor they finally chose and drink it.

Twenty-two days until the disaster of a party.

. . .

“Hey, Soo, I was thinking we do a Secret Santa thing! Everyone likes getting presents, right?” Jongin mentioned as he sat by the elder in the break room. Kyungsoo grimaced as he sat close enough that their knees knocked together. This was supposed to be a moment of peace away from typing numbers (so many, endless numbers) into a computer and being haunted by the looming thought of the Christmas party steadily approaching.

“Don’t call me that. And isn’t it a bit late notice? A week isn’t a lot of time to go out shopping,” Kyungsoo deadpanned. Jongin deflated a bit at Kyungsoo’s rejection.

“But I already made a list of who should get who… and had everyone who RSVP’d send me three items around twenty dollars that they would want! Except for you.”

“You did?”

Jongin pulled out a handwritten list with a few more pieces stapled on the back. He handed it over to Kyungsoo who flipped through. True to his word, Jongin had every one of the fifty some employees assigned to another with a few gift ideas written under their name. Looking at how specific some of the people got, Amazon would be a true Christmas miracle.

“Wait... what time is it?”

“Don’t you have a watch?” Kyungsoo mumbled as he checked his own. Almost everyone in the office wore one even if their computers and phones told the time. It was a professional accessory, if you asked Kyungsoo.

“…mine broke last week…” he said so Kyungsoo wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. All he did was shake his head in disappointment. Leave it to Jongin to break the simplest of things.

“It’s a quarter past three. Why?” As Kyungsoo was going to hand the list back over to Jongin, the younger stood up even when he only sat a couple of minutes ago.

“Dammit, I forgot I had to meet with some supervisors. Could you email everyone? Thanks!”

And just like that, he was out the door.

Kyungsoo stared down at the list of names, and presents, and assignments, and could only think of the number of emails that would have to be sent. To make it so no one was angry, they would need to be sent by this evening. He cursed Jongin’s name and everything he stood for as he cut his break short to get started.

Seven days until the party. Kyungsoo couldn’t wait for it to be over.

. . .

“I’m tellin’ you, this is the best one yet,” Baekhyun slurred as he leaned his entire body weight against Kyungsoo. The latter pushed Baekhyun off him and back into his own seat. But, truth be told, it didn’t turn out as bad as he was preparing for. It was… somewhat fun. Minus the drunk Baekhyun downing Hot Toddy’s and Peppermint Schnapp’s as if his liver didn’t exist.

The town hall wasn’t decorated in a way that was over the top and too cheesy, but still gave off a pleasant holiday cheer. While Kyungsoo wasn’t a big fan of fancy cocktails, Jongin had made sure to hire a bartender who knew the ins and outs of every Christmas alcohol known to man. The pastries were a hit, and almost gone completely an hour into the party. Stockings with every person’s name, at least those who said they were coming, were hung around the walls low enough that people could put little extra gifts or cards into them.

It was one of Jongin’s ideas that Kyungsoo didn’t mind.

“C’mon, c’mon! Present time!” Jongdae called as he dragged each person over to sit in a big circle one by one.

Once the last person was seated, Jongdae plopped himself down as well right next to two other employees, Minseok and Chanyeol. The amount of people had been dwindling over the past hour or so with people wanting to beat the snow forecasted for tonight. Most had exchanged gifts earlier on their own time during the party, but those that stayed waited until they all could do it together as a group. A drunk Baekhyun insisted on it, and those that remained had no choice but to agree.

The first to go was Yixing, an intern visiting from China. He read the name of his Secret Santa recipient off, very slurred from both the alcohol and his accent, and handed the present over to the man. It was then that Kyungsoo remembered his assigned Secret Santa was Junmyeon who followed with his, and so on. Kyungsoo laughed as Chanyeol stumbled up to retrieve the gift he wrapped.

“It’s for Baekhyun!” he proudly announced, slurring Kyungsoo’s friend’s name. Baekhyun’s face was already flushed from all the alcohol, but even more so when Chanyeol shoved the box into his lap.

“What is it?” Kyungsoo asked, peering over Baekhyun’s shoulder. Before he had a chance to see what it was, Baekhyun hid it underneath the ripped wrapping paper.

“Nothing… it’s nothing. I had Kyungsoo!”

Baekhyun pushed himself up off the floor and scurried to the table to get the present. Kyungsoo tried to see what it was that Chanyeol had given Baekhyun but could only find a box with a piece of paper inside. The only words he caught written in Chanyeol’s chicken scratch were ‘dinner’ and ‘date’.

Interesting.

“Here, Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun said, drawing Kyungsoo’s attention away from the paper and giving him enough time to hide it once again. He took the present bag from his friend’s hands with a smile. When he looked inside, his face broke out into a grin. He pulled out a copy of the new book by his favorite author that he wanted to read, but never got around to buying.

Baekhyun leaned in close as people turned to talk amongst themselves. “Don’t tell anyone, but it’s signed. It’s probably worth more than the twenty-dollar limit, but hey, that’s what friends are for,” he said with a dopey grin. “Now you! Give out that present!”

Kyungsoo was shoved over to the table as he laughed. Maybe he did have one or two glasses of wine earlier, and maybe he was feeling pretty happy. He looked at the table and saw that he had the last gift on the table. His hands picked up the box, carefully as not to shake it too much.

“Mine was Jongin!”

Kyungsoo looked around for his Secret Santa. Jongin was sitting slightly back from the group and not quite in the circle. His face didn’t hide the obvious surprise very well. Kyungsoo insisted that he take the colorful box and went back to his spot next to Baekhyun. Jongin shot him another look and carefully opened the box, not ripping the paper at all.

“It’s a… gift voucher for the fried chicken place down the road,” Jongin said quietly, still staring into the box. The few people in the room that knew him cheered; they all were well aware of Jongin’s love for any type of chicken, always insisting they have it for lunch. He even dragged Kyungsoo along once or twice.

But Kyungsoo knew that wasn’t what shocked him.

It was the fact that Jongin had forgot to put himself on the Secret Santa list, or maybe he did it on purpose. Kyungsoo had given his originally Secret Santa her gift before she left earlier in the evening and put Jongin’s down on the table instead. Kyungsoo just felt like he had to do it, nothing else. Not really.

As the party finished and only the few that had gotten so drunk that they had to have someone else drive them home (read: Baekhyun), Jongin made his way over to Kyungsoo. The older was helping the bartender pack away the leftover bottles into a bag when he felt a slight tap on his shoulder.

“Hey…”

“Hey,” Kyungsoo said dumbly.

“Um… thanks,” Jongin whispered. His hand scratched the back of his neck as he clutched the box close to his chest. “I know we haven’t been that close, but… it means a lot.”

Kyungsoo smiled. “You’re welcome. Merry Christmas, by the way.”

Jongin blushed and awkwardly waved by to Kyungsoo. Apparently, he was stuck on driver duty towards Sehun and Chanyeol both for the night. But Kyungsoo didn’t mind.

After all, tomorrow was Christmas Eve and he wasn’t going to have Jongin send it alone.

. . .

_Jongin looked in the box Kyungsoo just thrust into his hands. He didn’t think he was going to receive anything. Not many people knew him, and he didn’t make that much of an effort to even get to know any of them in the first place. Especially Kyungsoo. He was sure the elder hated him with a burning passion._

_He opened the present with care and opened the flaps of the carboard box everything was stuffed into. A little note sat on top of two larger wrapped presents and one small sealed envelope._

_“Tell everyone you got a gift voucher to your favorite chicken place. That’s not your present, by the way. Open everything else after.”_

_That’s exactly what Jongin announced. People all lost attention after, choosing instead to finish out their glasses of eggnog rather than investigate Jongin’s present. But he still waited until everyone was preoccupied and opened the envelope first._

_“Come over tomorrow. Spending Christmas alone isn’t fun. Trust me, my fried chicken will be better than wherever you wanted that gift card to be"_

_Jongin felt something bubble up in his chest. He moved on to the larger and more irregularly shaped present of the two. Behind the paper was a soft stuffed bear with a note around the neck, simply saying ‘to cheer up your sad looking desk’. At that, Jongin almost laughed out loud. Kyungsoo wasn’t lying when he implied the younger’s desk was drab and lacking any personal details._

_The final gift was heavier than the first and in a small, neat box. Jongin ripped off the paper and opened it. He felt the first few tears spring to his eyes, but stubbornly wouldn’t let them fall. It was a simple thing he mentioned, trivial even, but Kyungsoo remembered. Jongin didn’t even mind when his first watch broke but was disappointed since it was one his mother had bought for him._

_Kyungsoo had given him a brand new Rolex watch._


End file.
